The Father with the Advice
by Charly23
Summary: Fathers are full of advice. Most good, sometimes not so good. This is a series of one-shots set in the Bones universe where the fathers of the show try to offer their best advice in varying situations. We start off with Parker needing some help with his prom.


**Parker and the Prom**

As soon as Booth walked through the door later that night, he glanced straight towards his wife who was busy preparing dinner for the family in the kitchen. Her worried face mirrored the expression Booth was sure he wore on his own face.

A quick raise of his eyebrows was all it took Booth to find out the information he needed.

"He's out on the back deck. I tried to talk to him but I think I just made it worse." Brennan gestured to the door leading to the backyard.

Booth had received a call from Brennan at about 4pm that afternoon to say that Parker had come home from school in an awful mood. All Brennan could get out of him was that a girl had turned him down. Unfortunately for Parker, Brennan's response was that it wouldn't be the first time that it would happen to him but he should use it to learn from.

Unfortunately for Booth, the couple of hours between that phone call and his escape from work weren't enough to know exactly what to say to the boy. Setting down his jacket, keys and phone, Booth decided to address his eldest child before the other children of the house realised he was home and monopolised his time as they would often do. The moment he took a step towards the back door, all the speeches and phrases he had rehearsed during the car ride home, vanished from his mind. He only hoped that whatever would come out of his mouth, would be the advice his son needed.

"Hey Bud." Booth announced his return home softly.

All he got in return was an upward tilt of the boy's head and a sniff, which betrayed the pain Parker was in. Feeling his own heart break a little, Booth chose to sit down silently next to his son and let Parker decide how he wanted the conversation to go.

"She said no." Parker stated bluntly. "In front of everyone." Parker continued.

"I did everything you said I should do. Bought her flowers and some of those biscuits that Temperance makes. Told her she looked pretty today."

"Well then, it cant be your fault that she said no." Booth tried to offer helpfully.

"But she still said no, in front of everyone!" Parker's voice raised to impress his point.

"Everyone laughed." A bit more quietly this time.

"It's never nice being turned down by a girl, no matter how old you are. The embarrassment of having it happen in front of the rest of the school can make it all seem catastrophic."

"I bet a girl never turned you down at school." Parker challenged.

Booth laughed at the thought of him asking girls out at high school. "Plenty turned me down at school Bud. You know what though? I think it hurt when it happened but the fact that I cant really remember any of them now means that it wasn't really the end of the world that I may have thought it was at the time."

"I do remember a time, not so long ago when I was turned down by a woman and it nearly really was the end of my world."

"Hannah?" Parker had now turned his body towards his father, clearly interested in the turn in the conversation.

It had been a while since that name had been mentioned around Booth and he dismissed Parker's guess with a shake of his head.

"Bones."

Parker looked over his shoulder towards the kitchen where he could see his stepmother who was now being helped to prepare dinner by a pair of five year old hands, the confusion clear on his face.

"Remember when I went back to Afghanistan for a while, before you left for England?" Booth paused long enough to catch the slight nod of Parker's head.

"Not long before that, I asked Bones if she would be willing to try for a romantic relationship between us."

"And she said no?" Parker couldn't believe it. He had always wondered what took his father and his work partner so long to get together but never knew they had come so close at one stage.

"Yep." Booth stretched his legs out in front of him and leaned back as he remembered that awful night in front of the Hoover. "I think I did it wrong. Picked the wrong time and the wrong place and when she said no, I gave up."

"Dad, you went halfway across the world. Bones did too. That was more than just giving up, you ran away."

Booth looked to his son with surprise that he was so insightful into what had happened.

"Yeah, I guess we did. My point is though, don't let one little 'No' put you off girls for life or one girl in particular. There will be plenty of yes's along the way too."

"Not after today. Everyone saw and the ones that missed out will have been told exactly what happened. That is, if someone didn't video it and put it on the internet already." Parker's pout was back.

"If I ask another girl to Prom, she is going to know that she wasn't my first choice."

"Ah. So are you more upset that this girl today said no or that everyone saw and laughed?"

Parker was silent while his 17-year-old mind processed that though.

"That everyone laughed?" It was more of a question, seeking confirmation from his father.

"So, just wait a week. It won't be long before some other poor kid gets his heart torn out in front of the school and everyone will have forgotten about you. Then what you do, is you go through a list of the girls at school and pick one that you might never have considered before. You never know, you might be surprised and she might say yes. You might even enjoy yourself more than this first girl. Whats-her-name."

This time it was Booth who glanced over his shoulder at the woman at the kitchen window. He wished he could have been at school with her and taken her to the prom that she deserved.

"Yeah maybe." Booth still had a solemn son but there was a little bit more spark in his eyes than when they first began their conversation.

"Come on, I think Bones is making her famous mac and cheese. That should make you feel better." Booth nudged his son's shoulder, which was now level with Booth's own shoulder, just another reminder that his son was nearly a man.

"Dad! Bones' mac and cheese makes anything better."

The two shared a fist bump before heading back inside to a good meal and the non-stop chatter of a little sister. 

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

_One week later…_

A boring afternoon of paperwork at the office was made a little brighter with a knock on his office door a little after 4pm. There were not many people that made it past his assistant without Booth receiving advanced warning but he still got a surprise to see his son at his door.

"Parker! This is a good surprise."

"Hey Dad." Parker's mood had improved as the week had gone on but today there was definitely an extra bounce in his step.

"Hey do you have time for a shake at the diner?" Booth was excited by his son's impromptu visit and wanted to savour the moment as long as he could before his son was off to college.

"Yeah I do, but do you?" Parker tilted his head towards the stacks of paperwork awaiting Booth's attention.

"Ehh. Its not going anywhere, come on." Booth grabbed his jacket and phone, gave his assistant the heads up on where they were going and soon they were on their way to the diner.

Once settled in with their shakes, one caramel, one chocolate, Parker revealed the real reason behind his visit.

"So, I um… I took your advice. Again."

Booth couldn't contain the proud grin on his face. Clearly it had gone better this time.

"Yeah?"

"I waited but I didn't ask another girl to the prom." Parker teased.

"You didn't?" Booth's proud grin suddenly became a bit more confused.

"Nope. She asked me." This time, it was Parker with the proud grin.

"Did she now? Does she have a name?"

"Katherine. She's my partner in science lab. You were right though, I never would have considered asking her before but she is really nice. She has pretty eyes that I bet would look great in the blue prom dress she says she's got."

"So did she see you get turned down last week?"

"She did, but she said she was glad I got turned down because it meant that maybe I could go with her instead."

"This is going to be so great. Your mom must be so excited?"

"I haven't told her yet. How long do you think I can hold out on her? I just don't think I can handle her excitement for long."

Booth laughed. He just knew Rebecca was going to go crazy with suit fittings, bow ties and corsages. Parker was his father's son when it came to formal events. If he cant wear jeans or sweats to an event, he's generally not interested in going.

"I'll tell you what. Hold out until tomorrow morning. It's Friday tomorrow and you are staying with us for the next week. That should give your mom some time to get over her craziness without you around."

"Great idea Dad. You always have the best advice."

_Yeah, sometimes I do. This time I did._ Booth thought to himself. He only hoped that it would always be the case.


End file.
